Kaws' Hong Kong Holiday

A new guy is in town and he's floating in Victoria Harbour now

We have a new visitor in town. He's a giant 37-metre long inflatable sculpture called Kaws that's literally floating in Victoria Harbour from now until March 31.

Kaws is the nom de plume for artist Brian Donnelly, a New York-based artist and designer who started off doing graffiti in Jersey City, New Jersey. He has admitted in interviews that Kaws doesn't have a particular meaning.

This piece, called Kaws:Holiday, is sponsored by the Hong Kong Tourism Board and Asia Miles. It is reminiscent of the bright yellow rubber duck by Florentijn Hofman back in 2013, but will this grey-coloured character called Companion upstage the cute duck?

It's strange that Kaws was chosen to do this art installation, when just a few weeks earlier a giant floral statue of Companion was erected in The Landmark's atrium as part of a collaboration with artistic director Kim Jones on French fashion label Dior's summer 2019 collection.

The inflated sculpture is 37 metres long

Kaws seems too commercialized now in terms of artistic merit. Last summer the artist collaborated with Uniqlo for the Kaws x Sesame Street collection, and he has also put his design on reimagined Jordan 4s and Yeezys footwear collection.

But hey does it matter? Our taxpayer dollars are being used to pay in part for Kaws to bring this giant thing over and cheer us up.

He also has an exhibition at PMQ until April 14. It's a Kaws invasion of Hong Kong!

Chanel Up Close

A beautifully encrusted Chanel haute couture dress

Tonight after dinner, my friend and I happened to be near PMQ or Police Married Quarters on Aberdeen Street above Hollywood Road, when I remembered there was a Coco Chanel exhibition there. Lucky we caught it because it closes tomorrow!

When we arrived there wasn't much of a line, though we had to scan a QR code and tediously register online in order to get in free of charge. The first part of the show featured local artists' interpretation of the legendary Paris-based designer.

This white wedding top is completely beaded

While it's nice to have these kinds of overseas shows invite local artists to participate, the pieces themselves seemed forced... perhaps because the local artists have no affiliation with a brand that makes zillions of dollars from fashion slaves.

Then we walked inside a room where you could smell the different essential oils that go into making Chanel No. 5 perfume and when we walked out we wondered if that was it. But thankfully it wasn't, though it meant walking up several flights of stairs to get to an exhibition showing a few select haute couture pieces up close.

They were presented behind several sheets of muslin (white fabric used to make the first draft in tailoring) and a rectangular hole cut through them for viewers to "peek" inside the atelier.

Some of them had very intricate beading like the top underneath a white wedding jacket, or a dark navy dress encrusted with sparkles. There was also a selection of little black dresses that revealed the outer shells to show fashion fans how intricate the sewing was, but also indicate how many man hours went into each outfit, which was in the hundreds.

890 hours of work went into this black dress

It's almost as if Karl Lagerfeld wants to challenge the haute couture staff into doing the most tedious work to deadline, but in reality fashion is a business and these pieces are a way to lure clients to order these one-of-a-kind dresses.

One that I liked required 890 hours of work into it. Thin organza black strips were carefully sewn either horizontally or vertically -- definitely a daunting task not everyone would have the patience for.

There were also some high jewellery featuring lots of small diamonds to create glittering pieces that would turn heads, including one of a carved lion signifying the leo constellation that stands on top of a shooting star.

At the end there is a very short film that Lagerfeld made in 2015 featuring himself and Geraldine Chaplin as Gabrielle Chanel. She wakes up in her Paris salon and goes upstairs to find Lagerfeld there and the two have a feisty debate about how things have changed since she died, but she still doesn't approve of what he has done with the label.

Chanel's favourite leo on a shooting star

It's a funny finish, but then we are handed a cloth bag and a poster -- of Lily Rose Depp -- Johnny Depp's daughter with a tiara on her head... what does that mean? Hardly a souvenir we want to keep!

Mademoiselle Prive Hong Kong

Until February 10, 2018

PMQ

35 Aberdeen Street

Hong Kong

Photo of the Day: A Slice of Blue Sky

Taking in the view from this angle at the JACCAC

Yesterday I went to the Jockey Club Creative Arts Centre in Shek Kip Mei in Kowloon. I was there on assignment and it was my first time visiting the place, a 10-minute walk from the MTR station.

The building is former factory and about eight years ago was turned into the JCCAC with 150 studios for artists, arts groups, and students. On the walls were posters advertising for various art classes, like ceramics, painting, photography for all ages.

As a result many of the rooms are studios, or offices related to the arts. Perhaps PMQ should have been turned into something like this than focusing on just retail.

It was quite hot yesterday and so by the time I arrived for my appointment, I was dripping with sweat.

But outside on the balcony, there was a cool breeze and I saw this slice of blue sky in between two tall residential buildings.

It kind of sums up Hong Kong -- if you are privileged enough to have any kind of view...

A Fun Wipe Out

Street artist Invader's quirky exhibition at PMQ

PMQ or Police Married Quarters in between Soho and Sheung Wan, has a fun art exhibition on until this Sunday called Wipe Out, featuring the fun creative mosaics of Invader, a French street artist.

A pixelated portrait of Invader

He has made tiled mosaics of the original video game Space Invaders as well as other things like Mario of Super Mario Brothers, and the Pink Panther in over 60 cities around the world.

In 2001 until last year, Invader created a number of mosaics that were placed around the city, but it's the Highways Department that has taken down some of them, which he finds amusing, but some diehard fans formed a group to try to recreate the mosaics.

And in the Hong Kong context Invader has created mosaics specific to the city, like Bruce Lee, Doraemon and of course Hong Kong Phooey.

The last time he was here he happened to be staying in Admiralty during the Occupy protests and made a few mosaics inspired by the movement.

One of his projects not related to Hong Kong is called Art4Space, where he and a partner created a tiled mosaic of a space invader and attached it to a mini video camera and a GPS locater sealed in a box which was then put at the end of a giant weather balloon that was filled with helium.

Can you see Bruce Lee in this mosaic?

The plan was to see how high the balloon could go -- higher than the height airplanes travel at and film the entire experience before the balloon pops and as the box and mosaic fall back to earth, a parachute would automatically open so that they would fall safely back to the ground. The GPS would allow the duo to find them.

They did this in Florida and covertly, wearing plastic white jumpsuits and covered their mouths, but the drawback was that because it was so hot there -- hello it's Florida! -- they were sweating profusely in their suits.

Their first attempt failed because the helium tank didn't have enough helium to fill the balloon and they had to retreat and wait a few days for the next good day. The second attempt was perfect and the balloon took off, and at one point they lose track of the balloon because it reached the stratosphere where there was no signal.

A cute slogan that kind of says it all, doesn't it?

Four hours later it came down and emitted its location, but it took them a while to find it. They realize that phone GPS systems put the location to the nearest road, not necessarily the exact point.

It was the next day after hours of walking through other people's private properties did they finally find the camera and mosaic intact and saw the video which they showed us speeded up in parts.

What an interesting exercise.

The mosaics are colourful and cute -- and strangely look better when you look through them in the camera of the smartphone. It all makes sense!

This is one of the more fun art shows that hopefully inspires others to create art that is city-specific, and also have fun or poke fun at things or yourself. Art is everywhere if you look.

Love Hong Kong Phooey here

Wipe Out: An explanatory guide through Invader's creative universe

May 2-17, 2015

2/F, PMQ

Nostalgic Walk

Bringing up memories of Hong Kong by walking around Central

This evening I met up with a friend who was born and raised in Hong Kong, but has since lived abroad in the United States and is now based in Shanghai.

She is here for a short visit, and was very happy to have me take her around Central, reminding her of her old haunts.

When we met up at IFC mall, she was thrilled to have met up with four friends in one afternoon -- only made possible because of the convenience of Hong Kong.

I quickly showed her around one floor of the mall and she was very impressed by all the brand names and especially the Apple store, where there was a relatively small line of people keen on checking out the new Apple watch.

Then we headed out towards the Mid-Levels escalator, but not before seeing the Hang Seng Bank headquarters, where her father used to work.

As we walked through what used to be the Central wet market, she was immediately reminded of the time when she was a child and went with her housekeeper to the market where they bought all kinds of fresh ingredients.

My friend remembers horrified watching chickens being killed, and in particular a frog chopped in half, one half jumping forward, the other half jumping towards her. "I promised myself never to go back there again!" she said.

On the escalator she marvelled at the shops and restaurants along Shelley Street and was thrilled to see old establishments, like Mak's Noodles still around, and the Central Police Station that will be turned into a public space.

We walked along Staunton Street where she saw the bars and restaurants in action -- Tex-Mex, Nepalese, Italian, British... boutiques selling dresses and jewellery... and she wondered if people lived upstairs and I confirmed that was the case.

Just in time we made it to PMQ, Hong Kong's latest landmark that's about a year old. She wondered why the place wasn't as lively as Soho, but I explained PMQ needed more promotion, but also because it's more about giving a platform to young artists and entrepreneurs. The place is busier on the weekends, but more needs to be done to give these businesses a bigger boost in terms of exposure.

We had a lovely meal at Isono, the casual Spanish restaurant on the sixth floor, including a large salad, seafood paella, and a small plate of cured Iberico ham on the house.

Over dinner she told me about meeting a friend of hers she hasn't seen in 19 years, her first boss, and her next door neighbour when they were growing up, so it's been a very nostalgic trip for my friend.

She has done some errands in Hong Kong, like reactivating her bank card, but also renewing her return home permit -- as she still has one that's a beige passport-sized book and her black and white picture is from when she was in her early 20s!

I joked it was an antique, and she said even the staff at the bank thought her bank card from five years ago was a piece of history...

Ah young people!

After dinner we walked back to Central MTR. At Queen's Road Central she pointed to LHT Tower which houses Gap and Lupa, and asked if it was still Queen's Theatre. It wasn't I said, but celebrity chef Mario Batali has a restaurant here...

And next door at Melbourne Plaza was where her mother used to work for her uncle who had a business there.

So many memories conjured up in one evening!

Picture of the Day: Major Ground Work

The entrance to the Main Wing are blocked off and abandoned...

Last Sunday I walked along Lower Albert Road and I was shocked to see the Central Government Officers... being redeveloped.

While the main structures like the West and East wings are still in tact for now, the ground they are standing on is being redeveloped. After the offices here were abandoned after civil servants moved into the spanking new government offices at Tamar in 2010, the office buildings below Government House are empty and sad-looking.

The Main Wing looks particularly sad, where the media used to cover senior government leaders coming in and leaving this complex on a daily basis, and now it's cordoned off, though the Communist Party insignia is still there...

What's going on here on the West Wing property?

Apparently the site is being fixed up for the Justice Department to move into the Central and East wings.

The government had planned to knock down the West Wing (and build yet another shopping mall) but local activists protested this. They argued that taxpayer dollars were used to buy and develop this land, so the government cannot do whatever it wants, and architecturally these buildings have heritage value, so there was talk of preserving them.

Where are we at now with these buildings? Perhaps they can be developed like PMQ, though how the building will be used is another issue. The business model at PMQ isn't quite working, though everyone likes the cool open spaces here.

In the meantime, we will try to scrutinize this property -- our property -- more often to see what's going on...

The Fiery End of the Ghost Festival

The very large paper robe for non-earthly beings

Last night was the last day of the Hungry Ghost Festival.

In the past few weeks people have been setting up makeshift shrines along the side of the road, giving food offerings like chicken, pork, apples and oranges along with incense to give to spirits wandering around.

Paper stages filled with Chinese opera performers on the robe

It is believed during Ghost Month that the gates of hell open up and hungry ghosts come up and seek food and entertainment. And so apart from the food left for them along the streets, temporary buildings are set up made of bamboo but elaborately and brightly decorated so that the spirits can enjoy Chinese opera.

Dragging out Yan Wang -- check out his blue fist!

Many also burn hell money as well as "gold ingots" to in the hopes that the wandering spirits don't give them trouble by giving them enough money to live in the afterlife, which is believed to be very similar to the world us mortals live in, with everything from clothes to wear to officials to bribe.

I happened to have dinner with relatives at PMQ and I wandered up towards Staunton Street where a temporary building made of bamboo featured a large, fantastic looking paper robe fit for a non-human emperor.

The details of this colourful robe were amazing, featuring little pavillions with people inside them, and lots of fish along it.

This robe was in the centre of the temporary bamboo structure, while off to the far left side were Buddhists in yellow chanting prayers, and then next section had various offerings like pomelo and oranges. And then to the far right was a giant statue made of papier mache and bamboo.

After beating him they carry him to be burnt

Doing some research on Wikipedia, I think it matches the description of Yan Wang (閻王), the god of death and ruler of the underworld.

The face is described as menacing and from what I saw, this towering figure pretty much fit the bill with what looked like a dark blue face, mean eyes and his arms raised.

After the chanting was done, everyone was watching as people carefully removed the Yan Wang figure from the bamboo structure. Once they did that, they immediately started beating it with poles, and after several good whacks, they carried it to where hell money was being burnt to send this "god" to the underworld.

The robe with "gold" ingots hanging above

If it wasn't raining, the figure would have probably caught fire very quickly, so there was no pyrotechnic display.

I'd never seen the formal end of the Hungry Ghost Festival, so I'm glad I was able to catch it!

Picture of the Day: Panda-monium

The panda invasion begins today in Hong Kong until July 17

They're here! Today 1,600 papier mache pandas arrived at Hong Kong International Airport, then visit 10 sites like the Hong Kong Cultural Centre, Ma Wan, Victoria Park and Statue Square until June 21, before occupying PMQ in Sheung Wan from June 24 to July 17.

The pandas have already visited places like France, Taiwan, Germany, Switzerland, and the Netherlands since 2008.

French artist Paulo Grangeon created the critters, each one representing a real one, captive or in the wild, which is not a lot.

Sculptor Paulo Grangeron at the airport with his 1,600 pandas

The traveling exhibition called 1600 Pandas is part of a fundraising campaign by the WWF to raise awareness about the plight of the cuddly black and white animal.

"If all humans die, all animals will survive with the earth," said Grangeon. "But if all animals die, the earth and humans will disappear."

He said that back in 2008, Serge Orru, then director of WWF in France asked him to create the panda sculptures.

"As a sculptor, I made art and showed it to only 100 people at a gallery. But now, these pandas have inspired many to help the environment," Grangeron said.

They are made from recycled paper in Thailand and environmentally-friendly paint, and over 10,000 have been made, as some are "adopted" for fundraising for a modest fee.

In Hong Kong there are three sizes and two shapes to choose from with "adoption" prices ranging from HK$200 to HK$450.

The panda flash mob has already visited Paris...

Alternatively the public can make their own pandas for HK$188 which will be exhibited and once the show is over, they can take home their pandas.

This panda project is a great follow-up to the Rubber Duck that came last year at this time, except here there is a strong environmental message and encouraging people to interact and take part.

Sixteen hundred papier mache pandas may look like a lot, but in reality that's not a lot of pandas on the planet. We hope more will be born in the wild and not be raised in captivity because the less they depend on us the better.

By the same token we should not be encroaching too much on their habitat and let them be.

Only through greater awareness can we create change.

Now how can I "adopt" a panda...